About 100 residents at Wilton’s Town Meeting on Monday approved appropriating $15,000 to go toward debt payments on the $10.8 million upgrade of the wastewater treatment plant.
Voters passed all 52 articles on the town warrant and passed a total budget of $2,096,174, taking a combination of Select Board and Finance Committee recommendations.
The Select Board had recommended a $2,096,317 budget, and the Finance Committee recommended $2,106,192 budget. Before passage of the wastewater article as presented on the warrant, two failed motions were made to amend the contribution. One motion requested that the $15,000 be taken from the town’s undesigated fund rather than raised by taxes, and the second motion made was not to contribute any funding to the debt payments.
Town Manager Rhonda Irish said the article took “a good amount of time” to work through but that remained “productive, with a lot of good questions and a lot of good comments.”
A town contribution to the wastewater plant’s debt payments has been a topic of discussion among town officials since late last year, when selectmen were warned by the Water Department that sewer rates would increase steeply as debt payments on USDA loans used to fund part of the upgrade become due.
During discussion in January, some selectmen were hesitant about a town contribution to the debt payments because not all of Wilton’s 4,100 residents are attached to the sewer system. About 944 households and businesses use the sewer system, which is typically maintained and paid for through user rates.
Water Department Superintendent Justin Futia has said that rates could increase from $439 per customer annually to $760, and that factors in a $30,000 contribution from the town.
On top of the $15,000 contribution approved at Town Meeting, selectmen will consider contributing another $15,000 taken from the Comfort Inn and Suites tax increment financing district.
The upgrade of the Davis Court plant, which has not been upgraded since it was built 40 years ago, is the second and final phase of a project to repair the town’s wastewater system.
Several years ago, $30,000 was approved by voters to fund phase one debt payments. Irish said that article was supposed to be on the warrant annual for consideration, but with phase two of the project getting off to a slow start, the question of a town contribution was not taken back to voters until Monday.
Lauren Abbate — 861-9252
Twitter: @Lauren_M_Abbate
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